Tag: hosted applications

Note: This blog post contains dated information – please see Six apps to showcase your maps for updated information. The ArcGIS Online map viewer can be used to share maps with a wider audience, but it may not be the … Continue reading →

The Social Media Template, a popular web application template on ArcGIS Online, has been redesigned, made responsive and given a new name. Introducing: the Public Information template (hold applause). Big difference, huh? This is a fully configurable template that allows … Continue reading →

The ArcGIS Online plenary presentation can be viewed online. To view the ArcGIS Online Part II demonstration covered here you can fast forward by advancing to the 23:00 minute mark in the video:

ArcGIS Online at the UC Plenary – Part II

Part I of our two-part post covered how ArcGIS Online can be used by anyone, along with new capabilities like adding spreadsheets (CSV files), KML, OGC WMS services, shapefiles, and more. But while it can be used by anyone, it’s also not just for individuals, but also for organizations.

Introduced during the plenary were some new capabilities (still in beta) available to organizations via a subscription. These include the ability for organizations to manage their user accounts, assign roles to individuals, create custom landing pages and galleries, and aleverage hosted services in the cloud for publishing maps, and more.

For organizations ArcGIS Online represents a complete, online geospatial platform that is configurable, secure, and gives organizations the capability to turn their data into web-accessible services. This enables any organization’s geospatial information to become more pervasive, within organizations or to the general public.

A sample organizational site was configured for the City of Louisville, Kentucky. Organizational users can easily configure and manage their own site, replacing Esri’s ArcGIS.com website. Shown below is the City of Louisville site with a unique own look and feel; users that are members of the organization will view this site after logging in. Note that the gallery ribbon is also specific to the organization.

Shown below is the featured map gallery for the organization. Instead of maps selected by Esri from the GIS community at-large, the maps displayed here are chosen by the organization and help the users within the organization get their work done.

The gallery, default map, and basemaps used by an organization can be easily configured in the administrator’s console, shown below. Access to content and sharing outside the organization can also be managed, so you can choose to make ArcGIS Online completely secure and private for your organization, or enable external access.

ArcGIS Online also supports all of the different users found within a typical organization, from GIS professionals to information workers, and from casual browsers of information, to managers and decision makers. All users can play a role in ArcGIS Online. Shown below are some of the administration tools that are used to govern the level of access and capabilities for various users in an organization:

Some users may be “view only” users, while others may be granted access to publish data directly to the organization’s hosted services. In addition, in the event of a position change or exit from the organization, all assets from one user can be transferred to others, so no content is lost.

Content is very important to an organization, and in Part I we saw the many different types of content that can be used, including spreadsheets, to make maps. However, when working with large amounts of data it is more efficient to publish the content as hosted services rather than just adding features to a map. Using hosted services available via organizational subscriptions, any data can be web-enabled for broader access and efficient publishing.

For example, in Part I we showed how a spreadsheet containing just under 1,000 features can be added directly to any map. But for larger numbers of features these are more efficiently published as hosted web services, which also enables them to be used in mashups.

The map below was made from a spreadsheet of 25,000 locations, and has been published as a feature service via the organization’s hosted service capabilities, without the need for any desktop software:

Most organizations already have ArcGIS, and use ArcMap as the way to create state-of-the-art maps. But once a map has been made there is often the challenge of making it more widely available. Organizations can leverage ArcGIS Online to publish services directly from ArcMap, making ArcGIS Desktop the dashboard for online publishing.

Shown in ArcMap below is recent flood data that the city would like published. In this case the user has been granted publishing rights via the organizational account. As soon as the user logs in the map can be published directly via hosted cloud services, eliminating the need to manage servers, hardware, and for direct IT department involvement.

Choices can be made, if needed, about what kind of service is published (tiles or features), the projection and tiling scheme, and more. When publishing has completed, the user is notified and the web service is now ready to use.

Within an organizational account, the basemaps and the default basemap can be configured as desired. Shown below is the newly published flood data that has been mashed-up along with the city basemap and other services. Note the custom-configured basemap gallery:

In Part I we discussed and highlighted several templates that could be chosen from the map viewer template gallery. An organization can also configure the list of available templates, as shown below, to include templates for internal or external use (with the organization’s logo and branding) and also specialty templates.

These templates can also be extended to include additional capabilities, and can also be hosted in the organization’s cloud. The template used below performs a spatial analysis around critical parcels identified by the city, and delivers a report showing EPA regulated facilities nearby:

Groups can also be controlled and managed by the organization. Some groups may be for internal use only, others may make maps publicly available. The administrator can make decisions about how these are listed, and can review and control the content they contain.

In summary, ArcGIS Online provides a flexible, secure, and customizable geospatial platform for any organization, using hosted services and centralized management infrastructure. The result is that ArcGIS Online enables an organization’s geospatial assets to become more available where needed, and users more productive.

Earlier this week we blogged about how you can use the web app templates found on the ArcGIS.com map viewer template gallery as hosted applications simply by using your (or any other publicly shared) map ID. One of the most popular templates is the Compare maps template, and in this post we’ll show you how to leverage that one in the same way.

First, make or find three maps of interest that you would like to compare side-by-side-by-side. We’ve chosen the following demographic maps that we found by searching from ArcGIS.com, and you can view the item details for each map by clicking below:

When you view the details or open the map you’ll find the unique map ID in the URL. We’ll use these as URL parameters in the comparison template (I copy and past these into Notepad or something similar to make retrieving them easier).

Open any of the maps above (or one of your own) and click Share. We opened the USA Population Change map.

ArcGIS Online includes a variety of application templates that are designed for you to download, tweak the source code to suit your needs, and publish the app with your map from your own site. While these are designed with customization in mind, they can also be used “as-is” as ArcGIS Online free hosted applications. Here’s how to use them as hosted apps.

First, find a map you’ve shared publicly, or any other publicly shared map. For this example we’ll choose one from the ArcGIS.com gallery showing USA active floods:

Once you’ve opened the map in the ArcGIS.com map viewer, choose share:

And then choose Make a Web Application:

We’ll want to preview the map in one of the available app templates. Below we’ve chosen the Contemporary Green template. You’ll see the Preview option underneath each template thumbnail.

When you click Preview your map will open in the template you’ve chosen. Shown below is the USA Active Floods map in the Contemporary Green template. To use the map and template as a complete hosted application, just preview your map in the template and copy the URL you see in your browser. You can paste the URL into an email, add it as a link on your website, or share it via your ArcGIS Online account.

If you want to modify the app or add additional widgets, choose the Download option (rather than Preview as we did above) to get the source JavaScript code.

If you want to publish your customized template you’ll have to do that from your own server or web hosting service. But if you just want a quick map in a different template, leveraging the already hosted ArcGIS Online applications provides a quick and easy solution that you can use with any map.